Above section reserved for majors
Above section COAS intensive writing section
In earlier decades of the post-war period, those seeking to
understand the ‘Final Solution’ often understandably focused their
attention on the figure of Hitler himself. But increasingly interest
has shifted to the men (and they were very largely men) involved at
all levels in developing and realizing genocide. Over 100,000
individuals were in some way or other participants in the murders of
the Holocaust. A smaller but still substantial group of SS
Officials, Party bureaucrats, civil servants, military leaders and
others planned and directed the Final Solution in Berlin or
orchestrated the killings in the field. How should we characterize
their involvement – how much responsibility and autonomy was enjoyed
by different groups and at different levels? And how can we explain
this widespread participation in murder? What challenges await us
in seeking to enter the mind of the perpetrator? How have
successive generations of historians sought to understand them?
This upper-level intensive writing course will involve weekly
reading of 100-150pp. Assessment will be on based on class
participation, short papers, and a research paper of 12-15pp.
Three texts are required purchases. They are:
Raul Hilberg, Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders, Harper Collins,
ISBN 0-06-099507-6
Iris Chang, The rape of Nanking Paperback: Publisher: Penguin USA
(Paper); (November 1998) ISBN: 0140277447
Gita Sereny, Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience
Paperback: Publisher: Vintage Books; (February 1983) ISBN:
0394710355
All other texts are on the e-reserve list for this course.